hhhhWith Claude McKay
and Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer set the Harlem Renaissance in motion. He was born in 1894 in Washington D.C. Because
his mother died when he was fourteen, Toomer was raised primarily by grandparents. His grandfather, P.B.S. Pinchback,
was former lieutenant governor of Reconstuction Louisiana. A strict man, he became a tyrant over the family. Toomer
grew up in fine home in all-white neighborhood, but when his grandfather's position declined, the family moved
to a more modest home in the black section of town.
hhhhhAt first Toomer enjoyed life in the ghetto, but especially after his mother's death, he began to rebel and get into trouble at school. He graduated from high school in 1914. In the years that followed, Toomer became a wanderer, attending the University of Wisconsin, Massachusetts College of Agriculture, a physical training college in Chicago, and University of Chicago, all for brief periods of time. Toomer next went through periods as a socialist, and a student of sociology at New York University. He then studied history and psychology at the City College of New York. This unfocused, indecisive spirit was not merely a phase, but something that would stay with Toomer for the rest of his life.
hhhhhDrawn by the literary renaissance, Toomer saw a chance to put his varied experiences to use. He forced himself to commit to writing. Emerging onto the black literary scene, Toomer was introduced to others in the Harlem Renaissance by Alain Locke. Locke was instrumental in publishing Toomer's poem "Song of the Son" in Crisis. It was Toomer's first work to appear in a major magazine. Toomer also corresponded with Claude McKay, who published his work in The Liberator in late 1922.
hhhhhIn 1921 Toomer took a short time off from writing and took a position as a substitute principal at Sparta Agricultural and Industrial Institute in Georgia. In the six months that he spent in the South, Toomer embraced his historical black culture. He based his experimental novel Cane on his experiences, and in 1923 it was published by Lippincot. The loosely connected collection of stories, poems, and sketches was well received, though it did not sell very well. Black critics gave Cane positive reviews for Toomer's realistic portrayal of the black South.
hhhhhAlthough Toomer identified with his blackness, his closest Renaissance contacts were with white Greewich Village writers, critics, and editors. He became close friends with Waldo Frank, adopting his literary aesthetic of "buried cultures." Frank explored the position of the Native Americans while Toomer probed black culture.
hhhhhAfter the publication of Cane, Toomer abandoned his work with literature. He was exausted from the effort of concentration, and unhappy that his book had not faired well in the market. Uncomfortable with having established himself as a black, he estranged himself from his mentor Waldo Frank, and distanced himself from issues of race.
hhhhhIn 1924 Toomer moved to France to study with the mystic Georges Gurdjieff. For the rest of his life he moved from one mystic to another, having become more interested in philosophy, psychology, and religion more than literature.